During the course of the past two years, PNEUMA has been blessed in so many ways!
Among our many blessings is our wonderful interns who have sacrificed in so many ways through their daily acts of devotion and service to the organization and the people of Hancock County.
Today it was all about them and celebrating their contributions and unconditional love! A progressive dinner began at Lil Rays in Long Beach and ended at Marble Creamery in Gulfport.
We laughed and ate, laughed and ate, and LAUGHED and ATE! We talked about all God has done in them and through them, what He is doing now and pondered what He is up to as they head into a new season of serving.
On October 30th, PNEUMA Winds of Hope celebrated four years of accomplishments and unveiled the vision for the future of Resiliency Training through Habitat and the Bay/Waveland School district.
For those who may not know, St. Rose Outreach and Recovery (SOAR) will close operations in December, 2009 leaving a void in the outreach and community recovery efforts.
During the past 18 months di and bonnie have become certified resiliency trainers and are excited to continue the work begun in Bay St. Louis and througout the US.
Our first annual fundraising dinner kicked off with the sweet aroma of love, coupled with the tantalizing fragrance from the kitchen of Chef Zac. Hugs and laughter were the attire for the evening. The evening began with appetizers and music by Relative Unknown, followed by lovely dinner and Celebration program.
As participants registered for the October 13-15th Resiliency Training, many came with burdens clearly weighing them down.
Some participants facing multiple hardships post Katrina with health, housing and hopelessness came with shoulders bent over, heads down and unable to make eye contact.
Others came challenged by life’s hardships long before Katrina tore away the remaining fiber of their being, were seeking help for themselves and others.
In the midst of all the obstacles, men and women came looking for answers and help to break free and bounce back.
As day one unfolded, the participants were challenged to create a poster of “Yes I Can”. This poster would become the foundation to build a life structure of hope to regain and restore hidden coping strengths lost in the challenges of repeated disappointments, loss of physical mobility, and facing the long road of restoration and recovery in the face of Katrina’s destruction.
So what does a week of Resiliency training look like? Glad you asked. The following summary highlights the events of this past week and we will post other stories down the road.
Monday October 12th: Care for the Care Giver
An important part of rebuilding healthy community is helping those responsible for the caring of others. Monday morning began with Ruvie Rogel, Deputy CEO of The Community Stress Prevention Center presenting the topic of Compassion Fatigue and Burnout.
The training included a self test offering participants opportunity to evaluate their current state of being in regards to self care. Compassion Fatigue occurs when a person “Just can’t do enough”. Burnout however occurs when a person says “I’m DONE! Gotta get out of here!”
The symptoms of both Compassion Fatigue and Burnout are the same, and the solution rests in Self Care. We gave participants time to practice what they were taught, the afternoon was spent with free massage, haircuts, an art box to create cards and posters, a writing corner with journals, and a chatting corner with tea, coffee and cookies All the participants had time to spend on themselves, a true luxury! Participants took their smiles home to share with family and friends.
Youth Art Camp (YAC) was a summer program that we planned for kids grade K-5.
It was designed to give children a fun place to do art, while also learning some basic coping tools from our current Resiliency program. Through art and older youth leadership we have been able to show children a number of positive outlets for their daily and disaster crisis.
We did “Yes I Can” posters on the first day to help the kids find good things that they are capable of doing for themselves and to help others.
It also helps them to think about what they want and expect from themselves.
On the second day we transform our bad experiences into something good using Play Doh. Every child is given a can of Play Doh to work with and take home at the end of the day.
They use the clay to make something that represents a bad experience and then use the same clump of clay to transform that into something that helps them or that represents a good experience since. It was incredible to witness the things that kids are willing and wanting to share.
